Martin Luther King, Jr., a public philosopher and activist once said, "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear"(Martin Luther King, Jr.). Hate is a very vicious emotion and can hurt a lot of people. This emotion can destroy relationships and create an unhealthy state of mind within a person. However, love can overcome the burden that hate brings in multiple spectacular ways. In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, love is the stronger force at play because it pushes the characters to great lengths, creates connections between characters, and overcomes other strong forces of emotions throughout the play.
Firstly, love pushes the characters in the play to challenges of great lengths and makes them
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At the end of the play, both the Montagues and Capulets get over their hate for each other: "O brother Montague, give me thy hand" (V.iii.301). Romeo and Juliet's love for each other united both households. Their love overcame the feud and the hate both households had for each other. Hate is a very strong emotion, but love prevails. Lord Capulet is accepting Lord Montague and both the houses are overpowering the deep-rooted hate that has been in their families for a very long time. Some may argue that the hatred between the two households is what caused the deaths of Romeo and Juliet which led to both the Montagues and Capulets coming together; essentially arguing that since hate is what caused it and was at the root of it all, hate is what ended it. However, Romeo and Juliet killed themselves out of love. They killed themselves to continue to be with one another in the afterlife. They also fell in love at first sight without all of the hateful influences from each other's family. Romeo and Juliet loved each other so much that they killed themselves just to be with each other. None of their reasoning was sprung from hate. Love has the ability to overcome strong emotions including hate in Romeo and